Current Affairs This Week (17-04-2016)

Myanmar gets its first public listing
First Myanmar, Myanmar Citizens Bank and Myanmar Thilawa SEZ are among the initial batch of six companies approved for listing. After a delay of more than 20 years, Myanmar’s stock exchange opened its first business with single company.

Indian personalities at the Madame Tussauds
The famous wax museum Madame Tussauds will soon immortalise Prime Minister Narendra Modi in wax. Sculptor Marie Tussauds, who belonged to Strasbourg, France, founded the museum. Her first sculpture was of philosopher Francois Voltaire

ISRO established GIRI Radar System at Tirupati
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) established the Gadanki Ionospheric Radar Interferometer (GIRI) near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. It is a 30 MHz radar system that will be engaged in meteor and space weather research.

Village in Nagpur gets bus link for first time
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) launched a bus service to the Khairi Sita village in the district, It took almost 69 years since Independence for a State Transport bus to reach a tiny village.

Nation’s first Organic Farming University
Gujarath to set up country’s first university exclusively focussing on organic farming. The main objective is to help farmers in switching to unconventional methods of farming.

Adani Aero Defence ties up with Elbit
A subsidiary of Adanigroup Alpha Design Technologies Pvt Ltdhas tied up with the Israeli company Elbit Systems for Unmanned Aircraft Systems.The Pact reflects the realisation of Make in India for global requirements objective.

Mumbai to get international arbitration centre
Mumbai is set to open the country’s first international arbitration centre, posing a direct challenge to Singapore which is the favoured location currently for Indian businesses and wealthy families to settle disputes out of court.

Asia’s Biggest telescope Aries in Nainital
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Belgian PM Charles Michel launch Asia’s biggest telescope. ARIES, the largest optical telescope of its kind in Asia. It will be used to study star structures and magnetic field structures of stars.

112 adopted as India’s all-in-one emergency number
Telecom Commission, accepted recommendation by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for making 112 as single emergency number for all services like police, fire and ambulance in the country.

India ranks third globally in financial Trojan infections
The Internet which has been ruling the world has also left the possible risk of security like Virus infections and hacking risks. It is unfortunate to know that India has been globally placed at third rank in terms of Trojan infections.

Pallavi enters Limca book of records for crossing Mana pass
Pallavi Fauzdar , a 35 year old housewife from Agra has entered the of records for crossing the Mana pass (Highest Motorable Road In The World) as a solo motorcyclist.

4th Nuclear Security Summit in Washington
United States to host the 4th Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. PM Modi to make a strong pitch for strengthening international cooperation against terrorism and nuclear trafficking.more than 50 nations participating.

Carlsen – Karjakin 2016, World Chess Championship
Ukraine born Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin, won the FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament held in Moscow.The 26-year-old Mr. Karjakin holds the record for the youngest player ever to win the grandmaster title.

63rd National Awards 2016
Best Film – Baahubali, Best Actor- Amitabh Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut won Best Actress. Vishal Bhardwaj bagging his 7th National Awards as the Best Screenplay Writer (adapted) award for “Talvar”.

India’s largest-ever DefExpo
The largest-ever DefExpo hosted by India, About 1,055 companies, with Indian companies out numbering foreign firms, over 900 delegations and 47 countries participated in the event.

First set of Women Commanders to protect forest
Maharashtra gets its first set of Women Commanders to protect forest.A batch of 20 women are likely to become the first women commandos of the state forestry department.

India’s first indigenous Sonar Dome
Designed and produced by a Defence and Research Development Organisation (DRDO) lab in Pune, the sonar dome is a first of its kind in the country and has been manufactured by a composites manufacturing company.

Rare sand-eating tadpoles discovered in Western Ghats
Researchers have discovered a tadpole that eats sand, lives in darkness till the time it turns into a young frog. The tadpoles were discovered at the Western Ghats.

Myanmar lifts emergency in Rakhine after four years
Myanmar’s outgoing President Thein Sein has lifted the state of emergency in the state of Rakhine. The order was imposed in June 2012 as violence flared between Buddhist and Muslim communities.

Medvedeva wins world title with record free skate score
Evgenia Medvedeva of Russiawins world title with record-setting free stake score by winning a world championship her compatriot Anna Pogorilaya, won bronze in the competition.

Odisha Government launches 100 AdarshaVidyalayas
Odisha government has launched 100 AdarshaVidyalayas and CBSE-affiliated English medium schools in 14 districts of the state

India ranked 6th in top 10 largest manufacturers list
A UNIDO report ranked India sixth among the world’s 10 largest manufacturing countries, up by three positions. India previously held the 9th rank. China tops the list of 10-top industrial producers.

Reusable Blue Origin rocket
America based space Company Blue Origin successfully accomplished the third launch and vertical landing of its reusable New Shepard rocket, the BE-3 engine used to land the Rocket back at the company’s testing site in Texas.

April 5: National Maritime Day
Every year 5th April is being observed as National Maritime Day of India. 2016 was the 53rd edition of National Maritime Day and the theme was Ease of doing business in the maritime sector.

PM Modi launches ‘Stand Up India’ initiative
Adding to the collective objective of empowering the job seeker to become a job giver, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Stand up India scheme. Stand up India puts special focus on enabling SC-ST and women entrepreneurs.

Gatimaan Express, Fastest Indian Train
India has launched its fastest train capable of running at a maximum speed of 160km (100 miles) an hour. It connects Nizamuddin station in the capital, Delhi, with the northern town of Agra.

RBI cuts repo rate by 25 bps to 6.50%
RBI cut the policy rate to 6.5% taking note of falling retail inflation and the government’s commitment to fiscal discipline. The first monetary policy of the new fiscal announced a cut of 25 basis point in repo rateno change in the CRR.

Pranab Mukherjee presents National Geoscience Awards
33 geoscientists received the National Geoscience Awards (NGA 2014), which includes one Award for Excellence, one Young Scientist Award and 19 individual and / or team awards in 16 fields of geosciences.

ISRO, NASA to jointly launch satellite
The ISRO and NASA are jointly operated mission NISAR a satellite that helps studying earthquake and its patterns will be launched. The satellite is called NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar.

Chitra, Varshaa won Gold at WLBS World snooker championship
India’s duo Chitra Magimairaj and Varshaa Sanjeev won the seniors and under-21 gold medals respectively at the WLBS World snooker championship in Leeds.

Retrievable Satellite to study Micro-gravity
With an aim to succor scientists to study micro-gravity and space life science, China has successfully launched a retrievable scientific research satellite SJ-10.

Gangwar Inaugurates 3 Mega Projects in Nagaland
These three projects included Apparel and Garment Making Centre in Dimapur, Muga P3 Basic Seed Station Kobulong in Mokokchung district and newly approved Integrated Eri Silk Development Project under North East Textile Promotion Scheme.

India, China led investments in renewable energy in 2015
India and China led developing countries in investments made in renewable energy in 2015, when for the first time commitments in solar, wind and other renewables capacity by emerging economies surpassed those by wealthy nations.

Panama Papers: new anti-black money law
The new anti-black money law and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, operationalised from July 1. The new law imposes a steep 120 per cent of tax and penalty on un-disclosed foreign assets and income besides a jail term of up to 10 years.

CP Gurnani appointed Nasscom chairman
CP Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra, is the new Chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) for 2016-17.

Vishwanathan Anand to be feted with Hridaynath Award
Five-time world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand will be honoured with the Hridaynath Award, which felicitates and recognises successful individuals across the country from various walks of life.

New planet with triple-star system found
Scientists have discovered a rare triple-star system named KELT-4Ab with a gas giant planet similar in size to Jupiter. It was discovered by the researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in the United States.

Vedanta sets Guinness World Record for mass plantation
Mining conglomerate Vedanta said its subsidiary Talwandi Sabo Power (TSPL) has set the Guinness World Record for planting 2,08,751 saplings at a single location in less than an hour. the plantation drive was organised in Mansa (Punjab).

World’s first sanctuary for white tigers opens in MP
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated the world’s maiden ‘White Tiger Safari‘ at Mukundpur in Satna district in the state’s Vindhya region where the feline was first discovered more than 100 years ago.

International Conference on Zero held in Paris
The International Conference will share the rich and remarkable history of mathematics, through the participation of some brilliant minds, resonating with the UNESCO’s mandate to advance, transfer and share knowledge for the global good.